Sweet Child Of Mine
by she.s.a.shy.one
Summary: Embry's wife and imprint died in childbirth with their daughter Erica Call. This is a story of growing up in a pack, living without loving, best friends, boyfriends, imprints and werewolves.  Rated M for Language
1. Chapter 1

**(A/N) So this is the first chapter of my new Imprint story. I've always been kind of morbidly curious about a wolf's reaction to the loss of an imprint and how they would function afterward. And I'm a sucker for Pack Kids Stories. This is sort of a mix of both. It'll jump from age to age as Erica grows older.  
Thankyou very much for reading  
Please Review**

**Twinkle.**

**Sweet Child Of Mine  
**_Twinkle-Fingers  
__**One**_

"_...And the clouds above move closer  
Looking so dissatisfied  
And the ground below grew colder  
As they put you down inside  
But the heartless wind kept blowing, blowing  
So now you're gone, and I was wrong  
I never knew what it was like, to be alone  
On a Valentine's Day..."  
__**- Linkin Park**_

"Vera, come on, I need another push," the doctor pleaded with her and Embry could've torn his head off for trying to pressurize his wife. "She's crowning. I need another push Vera, come on."

The scene was hectic: a woman, no older than twenty five, was laying on the hospital bed, screaming while the doctors around her ankles egged her on. Other nurses around the room were checking monitors and machines and speaking too quickly for even Embry to understand.

It wasn't like it mattered. His Vera was in a hospital bed. And regardless of the fact that she had wanted it these past eight months, so _so _badly, the baby inside her was causing this pain. Embry just stood, brushing the hair away from her face which was sticky and shimmering with sweat. And she just kept _screaming._

"I can't do it...I can't..." she whispered, helplessly. Her bright green eyes caught Embry's and he felt sick to his stomach at having done this to her. "I can't."

"Yes you can, come on baby, one more push," he murmured, gripping her hand. It was starting to turn purple with lack of oxygen from how hard she was grabbing it but he barely noticed. "It'll be over soon."

It was agony. Babies were meant to be beautiful and reasons of celebration. But as Vera lay there, screaming and moaning in obvious pain, he couldn't think of any reason to celebrate.

He had imprinted on Vera Summers almost eight years ago when he was eighteen and she was seventeen and Sam was pushing him to do study at high school, regardless of the fact that he was probably not going to college anyway. Embry always thought Emily pushed him to do it.

He'd walked in one day, messing around with his friends and he'd stopped, stiff as a board at the girl, with her long sandy blonde hair and almond shaped, forest green eyes, who was curiously eying the sign up board in the lobby, particularly the sheet about the La Push Soccer Team. It was pretty lousy- they normally played schools from Forks, Port Angeles and maybe Seattle if they got lucky but this girl didn't know because she was obviously new.

New and beautiful and the centre of everything good in the world.

It'd taken him days to work up to talking to her- weeks to ask her out. But Vera Summers was kind and funny and her sense of humour, though sarcastic was thankfully not cruel because she said yes and then everything went perfectly from there.

There were problems, things he had once thought were unsurmountable: Old boyfriends, her older brother, the fact that she didn't really want to stay in La Push. It always made him wonder why she bothered staying with him when she was bright enough and talented enough to take on the whole world if she wanted.

Vera had a thing for the outdoors, soccer and supernatural. When he told her about being a werewolf, she'd been excited and he'd been so glad. When he told her about having the Cullens as allies, she'd wanted to meet them and he'd been not so glad.

Embry had been so in love with Vera that he made her Mrs Vera Call on the 16th of March, a year after she graduated. The Pack loved her. The Cullens liked her. Embry adored her. And when she'd wanted to start trying to have kids, he didn't see how it could go wrong.

But it was so wrong now. Because since she'd met Embry, Vera had never been in pain. She'd never even had a bad accident in soccer because she knew how it freaked him out and she'd been careful.

Her screams were terrifying and horrible and awful and he couldn't stand them.

Sam had tried to draw him outside to wait, having gone through the same thing with Emily and he tried to tell him how bad it would be, having almost made himself sick. But nothing could take him away from his imprint, not now, not ever.

"Em." Her whispered call made him pay closer attention to her, so close she felt like she was being x-rayed. "Embry, I love you."

He tried not to show his grimace and kissed her forehead. "I love you too. You know I love you."

Vera winced, hissing. "Embry, whatever happens remember that okay?" her last words drew out into a scream and the doctors suddenly exchanged nervous looks. Before he could demand to know anything, Vera called him back to her. "Okay? And take care of our baby, please, tell her that I love her. That I love you."

"Vera, that sounds like a goodbye." He growled, sliding an arm around her back and gripping her to him like he could take some of the pain onto himself. She knew he would in a heartbeat but he couldn't. She took a deep breath and pushed and the doctors smiled, relieved.

"I know..." she whispered. His heart was beating fast, too fast. It was like it was trying to make up for the slowness of her own heart which he could hear, was slowing down, gradually. "I think Dr Montez might be right." Vera broke the news to him and he may as well have broken down into rubble.

"What? _What? NO, Vera,_ Vera, you listen to me, you are going to be _fine._" He stressed, holding her tighter as she pushed again. He wanted time to freeze. He wanted it all to stop so he could think, so his brain might not explode with this information.

Dr Montez, the sweet mannered doctor who was handling their case, had informed Vera and Embry at her second trimester that Vera might not be strong enough to carry full term. Embry knew that well after the first three miscarriages but then she said something that almost made him phase right there in her fancy office. "Vera, you have to know that-" she had taken a very deep breath. "That you might not be able to survive through labour. Your body is delicate, fragile even now. I'm not certain it could last until the end of your third trimester."

But Vera had promise him. She'd promise him that she and their baby girl were going to be fine at the end of it all. That she'd come through it all.

She couldn't _die. _

"Vera, please, baby, please," Embry begged her. He'd get on his knees if he had to. He'd grovel at her feet. He'd do anything. "You gotta hold on."

Vera bit her lip and there were tears in her eyes as she screamed again, muffled. The doctors were almost yelling now, asking for one final push. "I d-d-don't know if I-I-I can..."

"You can't leave me. You can't leave me and Erica, not now. We need you. Our baby needs you. I- I'm going to die without you." With any other couple, in any other hospital, in any other country, this would've been melodramatic. But Embry couldn't survive without Vera in his world. He'd rather have her _hate _him for the rest of her life, to curse him and scream at him and never see him again than die and take his entire universe with her.

The blonde looked like she was going to answer but it died off in a scream and then it cut off abruptly as new cries filled the air. Erica. Their little baby girl. Vera panted, her eyes rolling in their socket, wildly. "Erica? Baby?" she murmured, faintly.

Embry looked at the squirming pink little baby in the nurse's arms as they cut the umbilical cord. She was his. She was hers. She was theirs, to raise and love _together. _"You can't do this Vera," he whispered. He could feel it. The world was dimming. The point that connected him here, that held him together, the central focus of his being was starting to drift away. He could feel her slipping away. "Please..."

Vera looked at him, tears in her eyes as she raised a weak, trembling hand and brushed his cheek. "Take care of her, Em." Her lips barely moved and he wanted to scream, to shout, to yell at her to stay with him. The nurses were starting to rush around, yelling things to each other and doctors flooded the room. He couldn't hear them. The only sound was Vera's heart.

_Thuthump. _

_Thu-thump..._

_thu...thump..._

_thu...thump..._

_thu..._

The beats got further and further apart, drifting away from each other as Vera's bright green eyes scanned his face, tracing over every piece of him one last time. The tears trickled out of the corners of her eyes. "I love you. So much..."

And then she was gone, before the salty tears reached the pillow.

-''-''-''-

He didn't remember anything after that.

It was like a vacuum had sucked everything out of him, leaving only the last image he had of his wife to haunt him. The last whispered words. The doctors' last, defeated murmur: "_Time of death: 3:08, 14__th__ of February."_

He wondered why she had been taken from him. Why she'd left him. Why they'd wanted children in the first place.

He couldn't remember.

In fact, he could barely remember anything.

He knew the others could feel his own pain but he didn't know if he had the strength or the will to change back. Humans had to brave the world, had to go and talk to others, had to get through each day no matter how painful.

But wolves didn't.

He thought he phased after he left the hospital because he'd been in wolf form for the last month or two. Vaguely, through the black, swarming haze that had settled over him like dust, he could recognize the thoughts of the pack. Worry, concern, heart ache, depression. That sort of thing.

He didn't even care.

Sometimes, he threw himself off the cliffs or the mountains. But werewolves were difficult to kill and he just woke up days later with a headache and healed bones. He knew the Cullens wouldn't kill him because he was part of the pack. And there had been no other leeches to take care of him since.

So eventually, he just sat, in the smallest, darkest corner of the forest, in the smallest, darkest corner of his mind, reliving those hours over and over and over again. _Time of death: 3:08, fourteenth of February._ At least he had a time for the moment his world had crumbled in on itself.

The only time he'd gone back near civilization was for the funeral. He'd stayed in the forest, watching as they lowered the dark, mahogany wooden casket into the ground. Putting his Vera down in the dirt, as if they could push away their memories of her. Embry didn't do that. He lived them over and over again. It was his punishment for not saving her. For letting her die.

A number of the pack had begged him to come back, waving the promise of food and warmth and help and love but he shunned them.

He just sat, howling sometimes, sobbing the next, wishing he could be in that casket with his wife, his imprint. Wishing he could die with Vera.

-''-''-''-

"Embry?"

The voice made him wince and want to crawl back into sleep. But he couldn't ignore Jacob as he made his way into the clearing he'd found for himself. So he just looked, impassively on at his former best friend whose face was agonized when he looked at him.

Jacob just stared at him for a long moment, his eyes tracing over the patches of dried blood and healing scratches and half broken bones. The remains of his best friend. "Embry, what have you been doing?"

A loose, half-hearted growl tore through his chest. Who was Jacob to judge him? But he couldn't even muster up proper anger. He couldn't dig up anything in this abyss of black existence. Jacob just shook his head, like it hurt to even look at him. Was the black hole so visible from the outside?

"It's been months, Em." Jacob stated after a while. Months? It felt like years. "You gotta come home. We miss you. We can't stand just sitting by while you're suffering like this man, it's not right."

But Jacob's voice was fading fast, like he was progressing down a long, long tunnel. They said there was always a light at the end of such tunnels but if there was, he couldn't see one. The universe had given up on him. They'd given him a reason for living and he'd failed, let her slip between his fingers and her frozen face, tears still trickling across her cheeks, was stuck, forever printed on his eyelids as a reminder of what he'd done.

It was all his fault.

He hated himself for it.

"...Erica misses you."

The words chilled him through the fur coat, right down to the bone. Erica? The name sounded familiar...

Jacob obviously saw the faintest twitch of life in his dead gaze because he carried on, averting his eyes to the ground and smiling, ruefully. "She cries every night. Emily's killing herself trying to calm her down but it's like she knows something's wrong. Adrian's good with it, thank god. Two screaming kids would make for a lot of sleepless nights."

Erica. Emily. Adrian. It was slowly trickling back to him, the blurred memories of the man he used to be, buried somewhere under the black hole. Emily Uley. Adrian's mother. Adrian. Sam's son. Sam's Pack. Sam the Alpha. He used to be a part of that. He used to be Embry. _Erica._ Erica, Erica, Erica.

"Emily hasn't got an unmotherly bone in her body but Erica knows she's not meant to be there. She just keeps screaming. Screaming for you." Jacob added, quietly. He stepped forward, slower than ever, like he was about to bite his head off or something.

He kneeled in front of the heap of fur and bones which had less life than a corpse at this point and looked him dead in the eye, flinching ever so slightly at the blankness. He'd never seen Embry like this. He'd never seen _anyone _look like this. So...broken. Torn up from the inside.

"I know you want to sit here under all of the pain Em." Jacob murmured. "We all know you've tried throwing yourself off cliffs, giving us fucking heart attacks but you can't do that Embry. Because there's a little girl who cries her eyes out every night because her dad isn't there to look after her."

Erica. _Erica. _Something sparked in the back of his brain, something that started rolling, picking up speed, forming something important he'd forgotten: Erica. His daughter. His baby. His little girl. Vera's little Kicker.

They'd been so proud when they found out the sex. They'd thought of so many names. Embry had been joking when he'd suggested they just keep the nickname they already had, Kicker, but Vera took it seriously. She said she'd been toying with Erica, which had the same kind of sound.

It'd sounded so perfect. It still did: Erica Vera Call.

For the first time in weeks, Embry raised his head slightly, some of the torment giving way to the thought of his baby girl. Jacob tried not to let himself whoop for joy at the movement but it was hard, so, so hard. He could see Embry emerging from behind the deadness. He just needed to pull him a little further out. "Erica needs you Embry Call. If you're gonna do it for anyone, do it for her."

-''-''-''-

Sam wasn't sure what he would find when he glanced out the window that night. It was 3 a.m. and Erica was screaming, the high pitched wails loud and unashamed as she cried.

Again.

He rubbed a hand over his eyes, trying desperately not to think about how Vera would've handled her. Because that was how it was _meant _to be. Embry was _meant _to be a dad. Vera was _meant _to be a mom. Erica was _meant _to have both her adoring parents curled around her little finger.

Embry wasn't supposed to be trying to kill himself, Vera wasn't supposed to have died in childbirth and Erica was definitely not meant to be keeping his wife up at all hours of the night with her screaming.

The Pack dynamic was a powerful thing. His wolves were his responsibility, he was meant to serve and protect alongside them, protect _them _if need be.

That protection extended to their other halves and their descendants and he felt almost as strongly about Erica, Daniel and Penny as he did about Adrian.

Three months ago, he'd failed his role. Vera Call, the bright, giggling, cheeky blonde that meant everything to one of his brothers, was dead and buried, her daughter without a mother before she'd even started life.

It was hard to believe sometimes. He kept expecting the pair of them to come barging through the door like everyone else did, Vera bent backwards with her enormous belly and Embry laughing with Quil and Jacob.

It had hit the pack hard. No one expected Vera to die. Sam had called off patrols to just three times a week and twice as many rotations because it was too hard to be in wolf form with Embry who refused to phase back. He considered forcing him to turn back as an Alpha order but he couldn't bring himself to do it. It was too cruel.

It made them all physically sick because they could feel Embry's pain. They could clearly see the half of him that had been ripped away, leaving this gory, broken, crumpled mess behind.

"Shh...come on Erica, shhh..." He heard Emily murmuring in the nursery. He wanted to tear his hair out, to scream. Things were not meant to be like this.

Absently, he twisted the lace curtains Emily had strong up the living room around his fingers, grimacing at how fucking awful everything had turned out. He moved the curtain away slightly and a tiny movement of shadow caught his eye.

He narrowed in on the figures as they walked up to the front steps and his eyes widened as he took in their ragged cut off shorts. In a blink, Sam was at the door, flinging it open but Jacob put a hand out, cautioning. So he waited.

Embry could barely see his brother in arms, standing by the doorway, looking incredulous and worried and relieved all at the same time. He could only hear the screams. If possible, they were worse. His knees buckled, like they wanted to run away from them again but he stopped himself. Because it wasn't a lost cause like Vera had been. Because he had the power to stop these screams, he tried to convince himself.

His footsteps were heavy and clumsy, unused to being on just two. But he made it down the corridor and finally, he stepped into the room. And there she was.

Held in the arms of his pack mate's wife, Erica was screaming, tears running down her face. She looked exactly like Vera had in the old photos- soft, delicate features and perfectly formed rose bud lips. Her skin was dark though, like Embry's and she had dark black hair like his too. Emily whipped around when he gasped and she stood, frozen for more than a minute.

"Embry..." she whispered through unmoving lips. Erica was still crying and, slowly, Emily held the squirming footie pyjama clad baby out him. She held her out like a lifeguard held out a lifesaver to a drowning man. The baby hiccupped and sobbed endlessly. She was perfect, a little piece of Vera and him, preserved for his own sanity. Maybe the universe hadn't give up...not yet...

"Do you...want to hold her?"

Slower than an ice glacier, feeling as cold as one too, Embry held his arms out and Emily carefully slid Erica into his grasp, gently moving his forearm to support her head. She winced at how banged up he was, how thin he felt. It wasn't right.

But she changed her mind when she saw them together.

It was like Erica had been quiet the whole time- as if she'd just woken up from a dream and she stared at her father with an almost annoyed look. As if she was saying: _Well, you took long enough._ And Embry...god, Embry looked whole.

There was suddenly a light in his expression that she couldn't quite place: not quite an imprint look but not far off. She knew Erica had become the centre of his world, that he would do anything to make his precious daughter happy and safe.

Emily only realised she was crying when she made it outside, Sam immediately clutching her tightly and whispering words of comfort and assurance.

Inside, Embry was almost trembling but not with anger.

Embry found himself when Erica looked at him. Her eyes were Vera's eyes. Mirror images. He felt like she'd left part of her behind in this exquisite little girl and he could feel the air rushing through his lungs, not crawling as before. No, now he wanted to be alive. He _needed _to be alive.

Erica's bottom lip trembled slightly and he was immediately soothing her, like he'd been doing it for months. "Shh...baby, it's okay, I'm here...I'm here...Daddy's here..." he whispered and within minutes, she was quiet, sleeping soundly in her new, warm, safe, loving cradle.

He'd left her for the first three months of her life. He'd considered leaving her alone in the world without either one of her parents. As he stayed with his daughter, watching the sun creep up into the sky, he knew and he promised her, a silent unbreakable promise:

He'd never leave again.


	2. Chapter 2

**Sweet Child Of Mine  
**_Twinkle-Fingers  
__**Two**_

"_...We won't find out until we grow  
Well, I don't know if all that's true  
'Cause you got me, and baby I got you  
Babe- I got you babe,  
I got you babe..."  
__**- Sonny and Cher**_

**Age 2**

Erica squealed as her toes skimmed the freezing water, thrashing around in the grip of one of her favourite werewolves, Seth. "Down, down, down!" she screeched, giggling and the enormous werewolf laughed.

"You want to go down?" he taunted and she nodded, her dark curls bouncing as he dipped her again, dipping her feet in the ocean water of La Push beach. Her dad was up on the sand, watching the pair carefully although he was talking with Quil and Jake at the same time. Since Erica, Embry had learned the skill of multi-tasking quickly.

"_Yes!"_ she begged, giggling and Seth set her down into the ankle deep water, still keeping hold of her arms just in case. Embry would kill him if Erica fell in.

He hadn't set her down for a second before something huge knocked into his side and he went careening into the ocean, his grip on Erica replaced by someone else's. "Ha," Collin mocked as Seth spat out the cold sea water, Brady howling with laughter next to him. "Our turn."

"What the f-rick?" Seth yelled, correcting himself at the last minute. There was a strict no-cussing rule around the kids.

"You got to play with her since she got here! It's our turn, we already asked Em." Collin stated, picking Erica up and swinging her around so she thrashed and shrieked with laughter.

Seth cast him a dirty look. "Are you serious?" It was common for the pack to take turns playing with whoever's kids were present but Erica was definitely a favourite. She was bright and didn't cry easily and she had a habit of wandering off, curious about something infinitely more important than her 'uncles' necks.

Which would be on the chopping board if anything ever happened to her.

Brady shrugged, standing up and shaking the water out of his hair, much to the delight of two teenage girls further down the beach who were ogling the boys, jaws dropped. He caught their eye and smirked. "Col, give me Erica for a few minutes would you?" he demanded, quickly.

Seth growled. "You're going to use her _again? _Brady, if you can't get a girl on your own without Erica, that says _way _too much about how pathetic you are." He snapped.

Brady lifted his hands up in surrender. "What? Chicks eat the kid stuff up!" he defended, snatching the squirming little girl from Collin's arms. It was a good thing she wasn't afraid of heights since she was constantly being passed around by giants.

"What are you going to go with this time?" Seth drawled, wringing his ears of water although most of it had evaporated from his body heat. "Is she a little sister, cousin or are you actually going to be _honest?_"

Collin burst out into laughter while Brady scowled. "Yeah, yeah," he snapped. "Laugh it up. I'll be the one laughing when I have a date and you're sitting at home on Friday night."

Erica kicked her legs up and pointed back down to the water with a pouty look. "Down?" She asked, sadly. Brady tickled her sides until she smiled again but he shook his head, glancing over to the girls who were now sporting bikinis and giggling.

"In five minutes, Kicker? Please?" he begged her.

"You are not using my daughter as bait Harris." Said a stern voice and the three wolves turned to see Embry, looking firmly at Brady who laughed, sheepishly.

"Daddy!" Erica squealed and reached out to him, frantically.

"Aw Embry come on, I was just jokin' around..." he trailed off, weakly. Embry closed his eyes and exhaled slowly.

"I swear, she's going to end up dating in elementary school with the way you lot expose her." he growled, taking his daughter back. Seth rolled his eyes, thumping Brady on the back of his head for worrying Embry.

"Good going dipshit, now we're never going to be allowed to play with her." he scolded his pack mate who groaned.

"You keep swearing and none of us are gonna be allowed." Collin snapped back and Seth snarled.

Embry raised an eyebrow and looked at Erica, who was sucking her thumb while she watched Collin tackle Brady and Seth into the water, beginning a werewolf scale wrestling match in the waves. "Why do you hang out with these losers Kick?"

Erica glanced at the teenagers as they perked up, shouting "Hey!" and shrugged, smiling innocently at him.

Seth looked up at the rest of the pack and grinned, waving at Leah who had just come down with her boyfriend Max. They weren't imprints but Leah had gradually begun to stop phasing to become human again. Embry couldn't look at them as Erica copied Seth and waved at Leah too. It was hard to watch couples nowadays. Normally, he just concentrated on Erica and argued with the others when they wanted their turn. She was _his _kid after all.

It was one of the few nice days La Push saw so they'd decided to make the best of it- a day at the beach turned to a bonfire for the kids to hear the stories for the first time. Sam was determined to make sure they knew about the tribe's history, _everything _they would need to know if, God forbid, history should repeat itself. Embry knew Sam didn't want anyone to go through what he did as the lone wolf of La Push.

He winced at the thought of little Daniel Morrison turning into a werewolf.

"Down Daddy?" Erica distracted him.

He set her down carefully in the foam, close to where she'd been playing with Seth earlier. The little girl bent down immediately, not bothering to keep her jean shorts from getting wet as she peered into the foam, prodding at something hidden under the sand.

"Adrian! Adrian Uley _stop _that!"

At the name, Erica's head snapped up and her gaze scanned the pack gathering, picking out each face until she found-

"_Dri!_" she trilled, stumbling to her feet and running, clumsily, across the gritty sand, beaming. Embry followed, every step of his counting for six of hers.

Since she'd been old enough to understand she had a nose, Erica had found a near constant companion in Sam and Emily's son, Adrian. He was just over a year older than her but she was curious enough that it made up for the gap and Embry couldn't count how many times they'd disappeared from their sitters. The pack was extremely cautious of their babies. The kids had been adored from birth.

And even now, Adrian's face lit up when he saw Erica and he called back, struggling to get past his mother who was focused on cleaning up the sand from his face. "Kick!" he demanded and she ploughed into him in a clumsy hug.

Everyone called her Kicker or Kick since Adrian had noticed Embry calling her that and had adopted the name for himself. No one else had dared to do what Adrian did without a second thought but Erica seemed to like the name. And Embry didn't think he had the heart to tell the precocious three-year-old what to do.

"_Mom_," Adrian moaned, stretching out the word in a martyr like fashion.

"Please?" Erica whined, one hand grabbing hold of Adrian's shirt and tugging insistently. "Wanna _play._"

Emily finally sighed and gave up on trying to pin her son down. Embry kept a close eye on the pair as they crouched down where the sand met the foam and poked around in the sand.

If someone had told him he'd be like this two years ago, he would've begged, bribed and threatened to find out the answer as to '_how?'_

His mom and Emily had stayed close for six months after he came back to Erica, trying to tell him how to understand the fragile little thing in his arms. He could barely bring himself to put her down for weeks but when he did, Emily was there, helping with mealtimes and diaper changing.

There had been moments when it got to be too much. When Erica looked at him and he saw Vera's eyes. When something happened that reminded him of her. Erica's birthday had been the most difficult.

He'd hit the trifecta- Erica was born on the 14th of February, sharing her birthday with not only the anniversary of her mother's death but also Valentine's Day.

It was as if the world were conspiring against him on the week leading up to it- the couples lounging around, smiling, the roses, the cards, the hearts being vomited on to the shop stands, all of it tormented him with what he used to have.

Then he had to relive it, even more potently than usual, on the day, recalling all the little details. How she'd been so happy when her water broke. How panicked he'd been when he realised it was coming. How she'd told him, in the last hour of her life, that Dr Montez was going to be right. How she'd known.

How she'd died, tears still trickling down her cheek.

Erica's birthday was the only thing that got him through that day. Seeing her smiling so happily and laughing at her hilarious uncles and playing with Adrian. It was the only thing that could distract him, assure him that the world wasn't really falling to pieces around his ears.

And at times, he almost felt like Vera was there. If he kept his eyes closed in the morning, if he didn't look in the mirror when he was playing with Erica, it was almost like she was there. Almost like she was lying down beside him in bed. Almost like she was standing behind them both, laughing. Almost like she was living with them in the house they'd bought for their family.

She would've loved to have seen Erica like this, he mused. Vera had had an older brother and a father who adored soccer and the outdoors and to her mother's dismay, she'd taken to it since she could walk. Erica was _exactly _like her. She would've loved it.

He wished he could just freeze her like this, before teenagedom hit and Erica turned into a moody, rebellious teen who was probably going to go out and do horrible things like dating and kissing.

Just thinking about it made him nauseous.

"They're too big." Sam muttered, coming up beside Embry, echoing his thoughts. Adrian stated something to Erica, sternly but she shook her head and babbled something back. It couldn't have been all that complex but their brains seemed to run on the same frequency at times. He had no doubt it made perfect sense to them.

"Way too big." Embry agreed, fervently. "We could always look into cryogenics."

Sam suddenly shuddered. "Freezing them in place? Too much like bloodsuckers."

Embry gagged at the thought of his little Erica pulling a Bella Swan and falling in love with a leech. His eyes lifted to the sunny skies, automatically. _If there is anyone up there, you owe me: Erica inherits _my _senses._ Lord help him if she inherited Vera's sense of dangerous- the girl thought piranhas were cute in their own special way.

In fact, she probably would've-

A sharp, shrill scream jerked him violently out of his thoughts and his eyes shot straight to Erica, who was sobbing now, sitting down in the sand. Adrian was patting her back, glaring at something on the ground but Embry didn't have the patience to examine it before he was beside her, scooping her up into his arms, tightly.

"What happened?" he demanded, trying to keep his tone soft, desperately trying not to let his terror seep through? Was she hurt? Did she need help? What was wrong? How did he make it better? Erica just kept crying, burying her face in his neck.

Adrian looked solemn, his dark eyes trained on Erica. "Kick found crab." He said, guiltily. "Told her not to." He added, quickly.

Embry rocked the little girl in his arms, her sobs slowly giving way to silent shivers. He knelt down and tried to smile through his own fear at the little boy. "She poked it didn't she?" he asked.

Adrian nodded, his eyes suddenly cutting from Erica to the big black crab that had made a burrow in the sand they'd been examining. He glared at it and grabbed the toy shovel from the sand behind him. Before he could stop him, Adrian had scooped the crab up and tossed it into the water with a grunt, landing with a _plonk! _just two feet away.

"Crab's gone." He said, matter-of-factly to Erica who sniffled and held out her hand to her Dad. It was a tiny little tanned thing with bright red lines across it and a touch of blood pooling in the centre, mixed with salt water and sand. He guessed she'd dunked it in the water and gotten the salt in it, inflaming it more.

"What happened?" Seth demanded, one hand ruffling Adrian's hair. Technically, they were second cousins but Seth had taken on the position of favourite uncle since he'd bought Adrian a dinosaur cake for his birthday two years ago.

"Crab go splat." The kid told him, grinning. Seth frowned but the look of pure relief on Embry's face assured him it wasn't anything serious. Embry delicately cleaned out the sand and scooped Kick up again. She struggled, sniffing up her tears for a second, looking at Adrian.

"Dri threw it away?" she checked, seriously and Adrian nodded, just as soberly. "Thank-you." She cradled her hand, burying her face back into Embry's chest as he carried her up to the others.

Kicker's uncles tried to keep her occupied while Embry dug up a bandaid from Emily's ever helpful First Aid Kit and cleaned it down, trying to be as gentle as possible. The marks stretched across her entire hand, like the pincers was the size of one of them. The crab had been a nasty one and it looked like Erica had poked it enough to irritate it and make it retaliate. If Adrian hadn't thrown it out to sea, however, Embry might've been giving his mother a crustacean to cook for dinner tomorrow night.

Penny, Jared and Kim's little girl, who was a year or so younger than Erica, peered around Embry and bit her lip, looking like a miniature version of her mother with her inky black hair and light eyes. She picked up something from the ground and held it out to Erica. "Flwer." She murmured, blurring the word and opening her hand around a little white daisy that she'd been carrying around.

Erica took it and put it safely in her pocket, smiling at Penny who scurried away back to where her twin brother was playing cars. "Poor kid," Quil said as Embry finished up with the bandaid. He expected her to go running away again but she was relatively calm to wait with him. "I remember when Claire got stung by a jellyfish down here."

The thirteen year old was conspicuously absent from the party, having been grounded by her parents. She would've snuck out but Quil was already on rocky territory with her parents as it was and he didn't want to make things worse by aiding her efforts in rebellion.

Emily laughed. "I remember that- you tried to strangle it and got stung all the way down your arms."

Quil's shoulders hunched, defensively while everyone laughed. "It hurt Claire Bear." He muttered. "It deserved it. Did you crush it Em?" he asked, knowingly.

Embry could afford a small smile now that he knew Erica was safe and buried in his side. She was playing now with the sand, running her fingers through it, mouthing to herself every so often. "Probably. If Adrian hadn't gotten to it first."

Sam's eyebrows drew together as he glanced at Adrian, who was playing with Penny and Daniel with the trucks. "What did he do?"

"Picked it up in the toy shovel and chucked it out to sea," he jerked a thumb behind him where Erica had been. He was seriously considering avoiding the beach from then on but he forced himself to calm down and understand that not everything could be controlled.

Paul and Jared roared with laughter along with Collin, Brady and Seth while Erica blinked, sleepily. She always ended up falling asleep before the stories came along. "Of course he did," Emily sighed, shaking her head.

"You might be out of a job soon Embry," Paul wheezed just as Erica's head lolled to one side, asleep. Embry scooped her up gently.

"Well, until Adrian's big enough to carry a sleeping Erica, I think I'm safe." he countered and nodded goodbye and beginning the walk back to their house. His car was still in Jake's garage waiting to be fixed up from a busted transmission but Erica never really minded walking. The walk was relatively quick- being so tall had its advantages.

"Daddy..." she murmured as he approached the door, turning the key inside the lock quickly. It was getting on to five o'clock. The sun was setting faster and faster these days, it seemed. Erica's childhood seemed to be slipping away.

In a few years he wasn't going to be able to hold her like this, patch her up, put a bandaid on her and tell her not to go near any more crabs. She was going to start running and playing and breaking her arms and legs if his own childhood had been any indication. She was probably going to want to know why Adrian and Penny and Danny had Emily and Kim and she was stuck with him. She might even resent him for it. Who knew?

"Shh, s'okay Kick." He assured her, dumping their bags at the front door in a way that would've made his mother cringe in horror. "You're okay."

"Don't like crabs..."

"That's good," Embry chuckled. "It means you won't go around poking them again anytime soon."

"Juss wanned t'seee..." she slurred, gradually drifting off again. Embry hugged her close, pressing a soft kiss to her forehead, which was still sandy, savouring the moment. Nasty black crab pincers were going to be the least of his worries in a few years time. But at least right now it was the biggest problem in Erica's world and he was glad for it.


	3. Chapter 3

**(A/N) As always, I'd love any and all reviews.**

**Twinkle.**

**Sweet Child Of Mine  
**_Twinkle-Fingers  
__**Three**_

"_...Can't you see?  
I beg and plead  
Cause when the lights go out tonight  
I know you're never gonna find your way  
back to me..."  
__**- All American Rejects**_

**Age 8 **

Erica could feel Aunt Emily's eyes on her as she stormed down the sidewalk, her shoes slapping harshly on the cement and she wished it would just break so something would feel as crummy as she did.

But it didn't. Because it was a bad day.

She could still remember the whispers and giggles and the Brittany Rodman had turned around and teased her about not having a Mom on Mother's Day. Like it was her fault.

_Oh wait. It was. _Erica's face darkened as Emily ushered her inside the house, talking with Adrian about where he should be putting his muddy shoes so they didn't dirty Uncle Embry's house.

Adrian complained but, reluctantly peeled his sneakers away and put them on the front porch but Erica couldn't be bothered. She just stared, impassively at Emily and then walked inside, clutching the white object in her hands tightly.

She could almost _feel _Adrian looking at her as she climbed the stairs, thumping the entire way. Usually, they took turns, going to each other's houses when Aunt Emily walked them home from school and then they'd go run around the backyard, playing tag or soccer or climbing trees. There hadn't been one single time when Erica had just taken off for her room without looking at Adrian to follow.

"Adrian, did something happen at school tod...?" Emily questioned but Erica had already tugged the door shut before she heard the reply. She knew he'd tell her. That's what you were _meant _to do with a Mom. Talk. Laugh. Play. Adrian complained about her but he didn't know how lucky he was.

Frowning, she stared down at the stupid white coffee cup. Mrs Sonny had written on them in big letters: **HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY! **She'd passed them out and Erica had just stared at it, not sure what she was meant to do. Everyone else was painting theirs, painting their mom's faces.

What was she meant to paint? Photos? Yellow hair and green eyes and a smiley face?

Then Brittany had opened her big mouth and it all went downhill from there.

"_Why have _you _got one? _You _don't need one, you got no mom!"_

"_Yes I do!"_

"_Oh yeah? Where is she?"_

"_I-I-"_

"My _mommy said she was dead! You don't need one!"_

"_I-I-I...I do too have one!"_

"_You can't do mother's day if you don't have a mother!"_

She was right. Brittany was stupid and mean and she liked talking to Adrian way too much but she was right. Erica didn't have a mommy. She had a daddy and aunties and uncles and brothers and sisters.

But she had no mom.

She got so angry she lashed out and hit Brittany in her stupid face. And when the teacher came over, she got detention for it even though Erica tried to tell her the truth. She had to wait ten minutes before she was allowed to finish her project and by that time, all the good paints were used up.

Erica stared at the cup that held the yellow-green haired, blue-purple eyed person. It was ugly. It felt ugly. It felt like Brittany's stupid _face._ It didn't even look like her mom. Daddy said she was beautiful and the cup-mommy wasn't even pretty.

She wondered sometimes if her mom would've liked her. Brittany's mom picked her up from school every day, hugged her, kissed her, put her in the car and made sure she was all tucked in before she got in the car herself. Would her mom have done that? Or would she have been angry that her clothes were always dirty and her hair was always a mess and she had holes in her shoes?

Erica glared at the photo on her table. It was of Daddy and Mommy and they were laughing and Mommy's belly was big with her inside. She knew it was her fault really, that she wasn't here. She'd been a bad baby and Mommy wasn't strong enough to be OK at the end.

_Why wasn't she strong enough? _She wondered, the same question she'd been wondering for years. She grabbed the photo and Erica suddenly wanted to break it, to rip it apart. It was wrong, all wrong. There was no Mommy, not anymore. She was outside, not inside her belly and Daddy wasn't smiling, he frowned.

With all her strength she grabbed the photo and hurled it at the wall, immediately knowing she was going to get in trouble for breaking glass. Erica didn't care, nudging some of the glass from the frame with her shoe. Her eyes were watery but she didn't want to cry. Only _girls _cried. She was better than that.

Suddenly, Adrian tapped on the door. She knew it was him the same way she knew he was bouncing on his heels outside, like he always did when he was nervous.

"Kick?" he whispered and she rubbed away tears that had gathered without her knowing. She felt as stupid and ugly as the cup-mommy.

"Yeah?"

"...can I come in?"

"Yeah."

The door creaked open and Dri sat on the end of her bed with her, looking at the gift box that his class had made for Aunty Emily. "I won't give her mine if it'll make you feel better." He suddenly said. Erica shook her head, her hair shaking out from the ponytail like it always did. It was so long it almost touched her knees.

"Aunty Emmy wants a present." She told him, her voice sad. She sounded like Daddy did when he was talking to Mommy every night. Sad and sorry and mad. She bit the inside of her lip and kicked the toy truck on the ground so it rolled to the wall and thumped into it, turning on the siren. She couldn't be bothered turning it off.

"Brittany Rodman's a meanie, Kick." Dri told her, sternly. "You shouldn't listen to her."

"She's right but."

"No she's not." Dri insisted although he didn't quite believe it. "She's a _butthead_."

Erica's eyes widened. "Shh! Aunty Emmy will take away your toys if you say that in front of her!" she warned, glancing at the slightly ajar door.

"Well it's true." He said, frankly. "She's not right. You can give your mom the present still."

"How?" she asked, curiously. Dri always had the best ideas.

"You put it with all the flowers and stuff." He shrugged. "That's what we always do when we visit." Erica frowned but it made sense. Mommy always got presents whenever they went to her grave place. _She'd like the cup if I brought it to her. _Erica decided, sliding off the bed.

"C'mon then." she said and Adrian looked confused.

"Huh?"

"Well, we've gotta go before it gets dark don't we? Or she won't be able to see it." she reasoned, putting on her jacket and carefully stowing the cup away in her bag.

Adrian looked at her, strangely. "My mom'll take us." He told her but she shook her head.

"No, no, we've gotta get there now. Or it'll be too late." She wanted to show her mom the cup. She wanted to put it with her name and the roses. But Aunty Emily would be too late and they wouldn't get there quick enough. She wanted to go there _now._

Adrian bit his lip. "I don't know Kick...Dad and Mom don't like us going outside without them..."

Erica rolled her eyes and straightened the Velcro on her shoes before going to the door, purposefully. "Don't be such a baby Dri."

"I'm _not!_" he cried, racing after her. They pretended they were spies when they got to Aunty Emily, sneaking past her and through the door without her noticing while she fixed afternoon tea. They snickered when they got to the road and Adrian frowned. "Are we going that way?"

Erica scrunched her nose at the direction he was pointing and shook her head. "Nah, let's go that way. It'll be quicker."

So, hand in hand, the eight and nine year olds rushed off, over the empty road and down the sidewalk, smiling and laughing as they started off to La Push Cemetery.

-''-''-''-

When Embry got home, he knew something was wrong.

He didn't understand it. He didn't know how. He just knew something was off.

Emily smiled at him, softly from the kitchen. "Hey Em." He called and she nodded back, her face worried. "What's wrong?"

She sighed, her scarred face anxious. "Just tired I guess. I haven't been sleeping well and with all the drama today, it's been hectic." She explained, rubbing her eyes. Embry felt guilty for asking her to take the kids home today but he'd been called into the garage due to the onslaught of cars from a Forks traffic accident. Being the best friend he was, Charlie Swan had suggested the drivers get their cars fixed down in La Push which was cheaper and better service than Downings.

Jacob was pleased at least.

"Drama?" his ears caught the word and he felt his gaze raise to the ceiling where he could hear the sounds of Erica's toy siren blaring, obnoxiously. _Why did I buy that thing again? _He asked himself, irritated.

Emily threw him a blatantly disappointed look. "It's Mother's Day Embry. Erica came home in a mess today because one of the other girls told her she couldn't do the presents without a mother." She explained, tiredly. "Adrian went up their hours ago and neither one have come down yet."

The toy siren started to fade out and the sound made Embry's brow furrow. That wasn't how it sounded. Erica flipped the switch and the car stopped blaring. It didn't start fading like a dying cat. When it stopped, chilling silence met his ears.

Emily frowned, listening for the signs of children but there was nothing, she noted, panickedly. "Embry-"

Embry was already taking the stairs two at a time and had flung open the door before Emily could finish. The room was empty. Cool evening air streaked in through the window, the obnoxious toy truck was sitting by the wall, discarded, still wailing faintly as the batteries continued to die.

Horror gripped his chest, squeezing too tightly, cutting off his next breath. "Emily, where are they?" he called, moving from room to room, hysteria growing. No Erica. No Adrian. Neither of them. Just empty, haunting rooms and-

Glass?

The crackle underfoot made him pause and Embry stopped down to look at the photo frame which had been tossed at the wall, breaking it to pieces. It was of Vera and him, both smiling, both glowing, their hands covering her stomach which held their little Kicker.

"They're not here!" Emily wheezed, coming to a stop in the doorway, her eyes wide with panic. "Where could they have gone, I was downstairs all afternoon!" she shrieked, pulling at her hair. Embry locked his jaw, flipped open his cell phone and dialled as fast as he possibly could.

"Sam? Bring the Pack down here. Adrian and Erica are missing."

-''-''-''-

Kick was lost and she didn't want to say so, Adrian thought, irritated. He told her it was the other way but she _insisted _he was wrong. "Erica, we're lost." He told her and she smacked his arm, angrily.

"No we're _not._" She snapped, pressing on through the branches upon branches, through the shrub upon shrub. The forest had been nice with their family but it was darker now and everything looked like a storybook, scary and filled with invisible witches that owned candy houses...

Adrian stopped and waited for her to stop too before pointing to his right. "It's that way." He said, firmly. Erica rolled her eyes and started moving forwards before sighing and shrugging her shoulders.

"I just wanna go see her Dri." She said, sadly, leaning a head on his shoulder as they walked. Adrian hugged her.

"I know. C'mon, we'll see her in a second. I know she's this way."

"How?"

"I just do."

Whereas Danny or Penny would've pressed and poked him for an answer, Erica just left it alone and followed him as he moved through the forest, quicker than most boys his age. Adrian was weird like that, Erica noted, casually. But that was okay because she knew she was weird too.

They walked for what seemed like ages but twenty minutes _does _feel like an hour to an eight year old and finally, they got out of the forest to the iron hinged gates of the cemetery. Adrian shuddered. "This place is creepy." He decided, wriggling through the gap in the gate easy enough and helping Kick through after him.

"No it's not. It's just quiet." Kick retorted, starting up the path and smiling at the other headstones, like they were old friends. They walked on and on, the sun long since set and the path lit by lamplight and the stars. His dad had told him that it was good they lived in a little town. It was easier to see the stars that way.

In the white light, Kick looked paler than she was and it was easier to see the resemblance between her and her Mom. Adrian squinted a little and tried to picture her with yellow hair but it didn't work. Kick wasn't her mom, she was Kick. She was his best friend and always would be.

"Why are you looking at me funny?" Kick asked him as they got to the top of the slight hill of the cemetery. They'd both been enough times that the path was easy enough to remember. All they needed to do was go up because Kick's mommy was at the top.

If he'd squinted at Penny, she would've thought he was strange and cried and then Danny would've hit him really hard. But Kick didn't even blink. People always looked at her weird because she was the girl that liked playing with the boys but the thought of Kick playing with Brittany Rodman was just too silly.

"Just 'cause." He replied, shortly as they reached the tombstone of Vera Call. It was pretty, white with gold flowers around the edges. Kind of simple but Adrian thought the really big stones with the big pictures and letters were too flashy.

Kick set down her backpack and opened it up to the cup, carefully taking it out and placing it next to the dead flowers. "Here you go Mommy. I told Brittany I had a mommy but she told me I couldn't do it without you there..." Kick rambled on.

Adrian sat down on the big willow tree roots nearby and closed his eyes. It was getting colder and he knew his mom was going to be really made when they got back. Adrian felt kind of saggy, like he always did before he went to sleep and he tried to stay awake. But then something warm got put over him and he couldn't stop his yawning as he drifted off...

When Erica was sure Adrian was asleep, she sat back down on the damp grass next to Mommy and traced the gold letters in her name. V-E-R-A-A-B-I-G-A-I-L-C-A-L-L. "I miss you Mommy." She whispered, feeling stupid for talking to the letters. But Dri was asleep so he wouldn't hear her. She put a blanket on him just in case, one she'd stuffed in her bag before leaving.

"Daddy misses you too. He says you're in heaven. Is it nice there? Nicer than here? Is that why you went away?" she traced the letters again, taking comfort from the pretty gold colour. "It's nice here too though. I like it. Did you like it? Did you like me?"

She hugged her legs to her chest. "Brittany said that you went because you didn't. It's not fair because you didn't get time to like me. I think you would. I think you would love me. Daddy says that all the time but I don't know if he's telling me fibs. He does that sometimes, when he doesn't know something. I got in trouble with the teacher for that actually."

Her eyes scanned over the sleeping form of her best friend. "You would've liked Dri too. He's great. He's top of his class for maths." She said, proudly. "I'm better at running though. Dri's friends get all sulky when I beat them but he thinks it's cool."

She kept up a steady stream of conversation, explaining about Adrian and Brittany and Penny and Danny and how Daddy was still sad without her, even though he smiled until she finally got too tired to talk and it was too dark. She settled the cup carefully in front of the tombstone and kissed it before she crawled under her Spiderman duvet cover with Adrian and fell asleep to his soft snoring.

-''-''-''-

"Kick? Kicker are you up here?" Embry called, his voice hoarse from phasing and yelling, yelling and phasing. He'd traced the kids scent all the way through the forest, through area that was often invaded by _leeches _and it was leading up to the old cemetery which made Embry's heart jump into his throat. _Oh god, let her be here..._

He'd been sent to search on his own because Sam knew anyone who slowed him down would be on the receiving end of his claws. Emily was hysterical, blaming herself for letting them get away from her and not realising it earlier. Sam tried to calm her but she firmly sent him into the forest to look for Adrian without a word of protest from him.

All the wolves were struggling because the kids had passed through sections they'd been before and the old scents covered up the new scents too well. They also gone through several rivers and it made it harder to track. If it had been a human search party, they would've been lost as to what to do.

But they weren't human. They were wolves. _Which means this should be __**easier.**_ Embry growled at himself. He couldn't believe he'd forgotten this stupid, irritating, infuriating holiday.

He hadn't prepped Erica for Mother's Day and she'd gone in without any of the reassurance he usually gave her. She was upset and angry and he really wanted to tear that little psycho who told her she killed her mother into pieces.

But he couldn't, he reminded himself, coming up to the gates of the cemetery. Not when there was a job to do...maybe later. "Kicker? Dri? Erica? Adrian? Are you in there?" he yelled into the silent darkness, knowing he was probably waking up everyone with his bellowing.

But he couldn't care because _his _little Kicker, _his _little Erica was gone, missing, runaway. She was out in the cold, wet, dark world that he hadn't thought she would ever have to enter._ It was his job godamn it!_ He was _meant _to protect her! And what good had he done?

He snapped the padlock on the gates in half and threw them open, smelling a tiny hint of the kids on the lower bars. They must've slipped through the wide gaps although the light sprinkle of rain made it difficult to tell. It was washing away their scents quicker than even he could follow.

"Erica? Adrian?" he yelled, climbing up the hill that led to Vera's grave. He'd taken Kick there before, if she went anywhere, it would be here. He could've cried when he saw the Spiderman duvet on the ground under the willow tree beside his imprint's grave.

He took the last few steps so fast it was a blur and scooped Erica and Adrian up tightly. They were a little damp but otherwise warm although Erica looked too pale, too leech-like for comfort in the dark. Adrian moaned a little, grumpily when he picked them up, his breaths slowly coming back to him.

_Erica was going to be grounded for the rest of her life, _he decided, angrily, standing up.If she was grounded, she couldn't give him these kinds of mind-numbing, heart-stopping panic attacks. He didn't often get angry at Erica but this was too far. She was old enough to know that she couldn't just run off into the night without at least _thinking _first. _For the rest of __**my **__life actually. Oh, that sounds good._

He was about to run them back to the house when he saw the hand painted coffee mug seated beside Vera's tombstone, quietly filling with water. **HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY **was printed in big letters and a droopy image of a woman holding the hand of a little girl was painted on the side.

He softened, minutely but shook his head, clambering back down the path and struggling not to shake too much with his own anger. He'd never forgive himself if he did anything to Erica or Adrian. "Hmm...Daddy...?" she murmured, blinking her eyes slowly.

"Erica, are you alright?" he asked, stiffly, taking off at a jog. He needed them back inside before they caught pneumonia or something.

Erica looked humbled. "Yes."

"Good, now can you tell me _what you were thinking?_" he hissed, hugging her tighter. He didn't want to go through this again. It was too much like losing Vera and this time he was _not _going to pull out of it.

Erica hiccupped, her eyes filling with tears. "I wanted to show Mommy my cup." She whispered, not looking at him.

"You _know _you're not allowed to go out without someone Erica," he snapped. "And you dragged Adrian into it as well? Do you know how worried Sam and Emily are? How worried _I _was?"

Any other time, she might've protested but there was a look on Embry's face that told her in no uncertain terms that it wouldn't be wise. "Sorry."

"When we get home, you're not seeing Adrian for a month." He stated, turning up their street. A few of the Pack were there, looking over maps and holding imprints, he could see Emily's trembling form in the distance. Adrian slept on, doing a decent impression of a grizzly bear with his snoring.

"What?" Erica squealed, her eyes wide and shocked and furious. "I _have _to!"

"No. Erica, this is what happens when you break rules. You get punished." It was so hard not to break, Embry noted, dully. Erica's tears came on faster now and she gripped Adrian's arm under the duvet like he might float away otherwise. "School only and I'll pick you up. You don't deserve to go out after scaring everybody like this."

"I didn't mean to." Erica sobbed, not looking at him as they got within view of the house. Everyone looked up like their heads were connected to the same string and jerked toward Embry, crying out when he saw the two children he carried.

Emily practically tore Adrian out of his arms and clutched him close to her, muttering and scolding him and asking just what the hell he thought he was doing. Since the kid had just woken up, Embry felt a tiny twinge of pity for him as his mother grew more and more hysterical at his sleep ridden answers (_Just seemed like a good idea..._)

Erica was too busy crying and trying to make sure no one saw. It took almost half an hour to clear everyone out of his house and assure them of the two kid's safety. Eventually, he'd asked Sam to step in and order them all to leave so Embry could try to dissect just what the heck was going through his Kicker's mind when she ran away this afternoon.

So in between crying and hiccups, she told him about the infuriating little girl who had mocked his daughter and wife and then Adrian's idea to go visit the grave and how they'd snuck off before Aunty Emily could notice.

Embry pressed his hands against the sides of his head. "Erica, you know better than that." He scolded. "Your mother loved you. She still does. You shouldn't let anyone in the world tell you otherwise because they're lying through their teeth."

"Yes Daddy." Erica whispered. Embry sighed and hugged her tightly.

"You gave me a scare there Kick," he murmured. "Don't do it again, alright?"

"Yes daddy."

"And don't talk to that girl anymore, okay?"

"Yes daddy. I love you."

Embry sighed again, wishing that Vera was here to stay strong. But Erica probably knew she had him wrapped around her little finger. "I love you too. But Erica?" he said, in an attempt to keep going. The years she'd taken off his life were demanding revenge.

"Yeah?"

"You're still not allowed to go out to Aunt Emily's place."


	4. Chapter 4

**Sweet Child Of Mine  
**_Twinkle-Fingers__  
__**Four**_

"_...__you're the best friend  
that I ever had  
I've been with you such a long time  
You're my sunshine  
And I want you to know  
That my feelings are true  
I really love you..."__  
__**-Queen**_

**Age 11**

"Erica?"

She kept swinging, rocking back and forth, trying to ignore the idiot who had taken up the spot beside her. A part of her wished he'd walk out in front of her so she could kick him in the face. Jerk.

"Erica, can you stop?" he asked, pleadingly with a hint of frustration.

"We already stopped being friends Adrian." She said, bitingly. "What else do you want?"

She could see him wince when she called him that but she didn't care. She was humiliated. He'd laughed at her with the rest of his crappy friends, telling her to get lost because who would want a _girl _sitting at their table for lunch? The one friend she thought she had had turned out to be a moron.

Great.

_Back and forth, _she told herself. _He'll go away eventually._ He wouldn't want to be seen around such a childish place anyway. Which was precisely why she did most of her thinking here.

"Erica, come on...I know I should've let you sit down but..."

"But you and your friends are idiots. I understand that. But I have a _positive_ IQ Adrian so I don't think we _can _be friends anymore. Good for you." Erica snapped, coming to a sudden stop and glaring at him. He just stood there, shuffling his feet in the playground sand, trying to ignore the fact that she hated him.

Well, she didn't _hate _him. In fact, she really liked Adrian. Like, _like _liked him. But what was she meant to do? Just let him say sorry and have him do it again tomorrow? No, Erica steeled herself. Adrian wasn't her friend anymore. She didn't _like _like him _or _like him.

So there.

"Go away Adrian." She told him, hopping off the swings and starting across the sand to where her backpack was leaning against the side of the sandpit. Her new backpack which had black and white circles-in-circles on it that she'd picked out specially for the new year, her first year of Middle School.

Trust Adrian to screw that up royally.

He'd ignored her for the past week, pretending he didn't see her when she passed him in the corridors and when she finally went up to him at lunch to ask if they could hang out and sit together, he just sneered at her, saying he didn't want to hang out with a _girl._

"Kicker?"

She paused, wishing she didn't want to hug the big oaf. But Erica always wanted to hug Adrian. "What?"

Adrian followed after her, muttering. "I'm sorry Kick. The guys at school don't like sitting with girls and..."

"And what?"

"And it's really hard to make friends when everyone thinks your parents are part of a cult." He practically shouted, throwing his hands up. Erica turned around, feeling a tiny bit sorry for him. "_We _know what's going on but none of them do. They just don't get it."

Erica bit her lip, folding her arms, tightly across her chest. Her hair was cut around her ears, dark and curly and her eyes flashed brightly at him. She was looking at him the same way she looked at opponents on the soccer team- determined and a little angry. "Dri, it's difficult for _everyone._" She hissed. Adrian felt relief when she called him 'Dri', knowing she didn't _really _hate him, like he thought.

"Penny and Danny and me, all of us got whispered and talked about! And we really wanted to just come to school and have _one person _who would be nice apart from us and what happened? You just embarrassed me when I tried to talk to my best friend!" she yelled.

Adrian felt shame but he didn't want to back down. "Kick, you can't just come over like that though! My friends think you're too girly to hang out with and it's..." he stared at his feet, feeling stupid for saying it. "It's nice having people who don't know about_ it_."

Erica sighed, not quite ready to forgive him. "Well that's great Adrian but what about us? Penny nearly cried in Maths and Danny looked mad enough to hit your stupid _friends,_" she spat the word out. "Would you have helped them beat him up if he did?"

"No!" Adrian yelled, horrified. They didn't talk for a moment as Adrian lived through several scenarios of what he _would've _done if that had happened. He didn't doubt Daniel would've hit Kyle Simpson in the mouth if he made his twin cry but at the same time...would he have stopped Kyle from hitting him back? With all his friends behind him?

"We're your friends too Dri," Erica told him, quieter now. "We don't have to sit with you if you don't want to but don't just pretend we don't exist."

"Kick-"

But she'd already turned and started off toward her house so he didn't see her crying.

-''-''-''-

The next day, Adrian had to watch Erica as she walked through the canteen line and got lunch and sat down beside the twins, all the while pretending he wasn't even there. He tried to talk to her before school and in the corridors but he hadn't bothered to figure out where her locker was on the first day so he didn't know where to wait for her.

Shy little Penny stopped looking at him too although Danny shot him venomous looks whenever he could, angry with the 12-year-old for being such a jerk.

He couldn't help but feel a little hurt. He hated lying to his friends now and it was as nice to have people who _did _know about the La Push protectors as having those that didn't. Having his life-long friends angry with him was fair but horrible.

Adrian took a deep breath and picked at the stew, glancing over at their table every once and a while. He noticed that one girl had gotten up, Miranda something or other, and was now talking with Erica, softly. They exchanged words and Penny moved over to let her sit down, smiling at her as she did.

It was like the buzzer at the start of the 100 metre sprints. While Miranda and Erica talked and giggled, another two boys came over and asked to sit down as well and then another three girls and another and another and another until the table was full.

It was weird but Erica didn't seem to mind the onslaught. Danny had started talking, slowly, with the other boys and Penny was listening to a loud girl beside her who waved her hands a lot. Adrian didn't know why but he felt angry.

He scowled and stabbed the stew in front of him, ignoring the jokes of his friends beside him. He shouldn't be surprised- Erica was an easy person to be friends with and Penny and Danny were great too. But it was just because they were all trying to be friends with _his _friends that bothered him.

Adrian wouldn't have been worried if he knew Erica was still his best friend but he wasn't. The position was now open and apparently there were a bunch of girls (as well as some of the boys) who wanted to fill it.

Which wasn't fair because no one but Adrian knew that people called her Kick because she liked soccer and no one but him knew she double knotted her shoe laces and no one but him knew she always liked the icing better than the cake.

"Hey Adrian, why you looking at the loser table?" quipped one of the guys beside him. Matt hit his shoulder.

"Cram it stupid, they're just new kids." He snapped. Matt was a good guy, Adrian thought, biting the inside of his cheek.

"Yeah, but why's he looking at them?" Harry persisted. "Seriously, why would you want to hang out with them anyway? They're all younger."

"So?" Adrian found himself snapping. "Erica Call could kick your sorry ass to New York in a soccer game."

Harry flushed, scowling. "Could not. She's just a _girl._" He sneered and Kyle nodded, frowning at Adrian like he was crazy.

"She's pretty good," Ryan muttered. "Remember when we saw her playing on the beach?"

"Whatever." Kyle mumbled, irritatedly. He perked up as Adrian stood, however. "Where're you going?"

"I'm gonna go eat with my friends today," Adrian said, taking a deep breath. Matt looked at him for a second before shrugging.

"Why not?" he asked, standing up and looping his bag over his shoulder. Ryan didn't come but Adrian didn't really care. He wouldn't have wanted Kick to have to stick around with Harry and Kyle anyway.

The was a kind of bubble of quiet when he stepped up beside Kick and she looked at him, questioningly. She could be mean and turn him away like he had. That's what most of the kids expected. "Can I sit here Kick?" he murmured, considerably less bold than she'd been yesterday.

She watched him for a second before shoving Penny's and her bags off the seats next to her, her answering smile blinding.

-''-''-''-

**Age 14**

Embry was helpless. He could do nothing to stop the tyranny that opposed him, do nothing to stop them from taking his little girl. A little girl whose hands were trembling slightly with anxiety. What had he done? Why had he let it come to this?

"Okay, so just keep this in your bag," Claire instructed, smiling. "A little lip gloss will go a long way."

"It'll be really fun Erica," Penny assured her, bouncing on her bed while Embry watched from the doorway.

Erica was going out on a _date._

Embry could've thrown up if he didn't know it would've made Erica worried and then infuriated.

In the corner of the room, Adrian glared at Erica as she sat in the chair, his mood tangible. He was irritated with his best friend although he really didn't have much of a say in the matter. He probably thought it was his fault, poor kid.

_Well, _Embry wheedled, silently. _It kinda is..._

_No._ It wasn't Adrian's fault. He didn't think he should be wringing his neck. Adrian Uley did not start this. He merely introduced the boy to Erica- _Damn it stop! _

"Garrett said we were just going to the movies." Erica repeated herself, rolling her eyes. "It's not a date."

Claire sighed. "Sweetie, despite the negative testosterone-powered cavemen thoughts that are infecting this room-" she said, pointedly looking at both Embry and Adrian. "-You're going out to the movies, in Port Angeles, alone, with a boy who practically swallowed his tongue when he asked you. Trust me. It's a date."

"Is not." Adrian muttered, throwing an arm over his eyes and himself on the bed all at the same time. Erica looked slightly worried for him but Penny caught her attention quickly.

"Why are you even here?" Claire teased, poking his stomach. "Go wait in the lounge room, huh? And take Papa Wolf with you." She raised a knowing eyebrow at Embry who was somewhat glad and horrified for the excuse to leave.

Adrian snorted and muttered to himself as he charged down the corridor. "...who does he think he is...knows she's off limits...dumbass..." Embry caught a few colourful phrases before Adrian tossed himself into an armchair and glared at the heater.

"We all knew it was going to happen sometime kid," he said, struggling to stay calm. Adrian groaned.

"Erica's too young." He grunted. "Garrett's a jerk."

"You said he was a good guy the day he tried out for the soccer team." Embry pointed out, trying to calm his own nerves and wide overprotective streak.

"Well yeah..." Adrian wheedled. "But he's not allowed to date _Kick._ She's a year younger!"

"You started dating last year too."

"Not the same thing."

"Why, because she's a girl?"

"No, because she's my best friend, my little sister." Adrian ran a hand through his dark hair. He was tall for his age but muscled although his size was worrying some of the remaining Pack members. Embry included. As much as Adrian counted Erica a little sister, Embry counted him a second son. Same as Penny and Danny and William and Sarah and Hamish and Thomas.

Embry sighed. "The only way we're going to get through this is to focus on what would happen if we told her she _couldn't _date." He reasoned although it was hard, oh so hard. He'd been sorely tempted to set a No-Dating-til-You're-Fifty Rule on Erica but he figured she'd never speak to him again.

"_It's not a date!_" Adrian nearly shouted. "Kick is going to become a _nun._ She's going to die completely innocent." He flushed furiously at the last word although Embry could definitely see the temptation in believing it. Adrian was as protective of Kick as he was (although Embry went about it a hell of a lot subtler than Sam's first son. All he could think was thank God Adrian just had two little brothers not sisters.)

Embry trusted Erica to make her own decisions. Embry believed she could sort out the right kind of guy from the wrong kind. Embry tried very, _very _hard to remember these mantras when Erica came downstairs in jeans and a v-neck green sweater, looking two years older and _way _too much like a teenage Vera.

Adrian merely snarled as she dumped herself next to him in the nearest armchair and kicked his leg. "What's wrong with you?" she demanded.

"Nothing." He muttered, sulkily. It was hard for a fifteen year old to sulk but somehow Adrian managed it. He knew, logically, that Garrett had every right to ask out Erica. Why wouldn't he? Erica was pretty, smart, funny and she had spent enough time surrounded by guys to be comfortable with them. When he'd told Embry Erica was going to die completely innocent, he knew that wasn't precisely true.

She _did _spend enough time with him and her other guy friends that her mind had become as twisted and dirty as theirs. But she was _Kick. _It was weird to have her grow up. It was weird to have her do things with boys she'd previously been grossed out by. It was weird to not have to protect her or not be there when he could.

The only way he was getting through this was by pretending it wasn't a date, although the facade was quickly failing.

God forbid they become a _couple._

"Dri? You look kind of green." Erica noted, casually a spark of humour in her eyes.

"'M fine." He choked out.

He also hadn't felt the need to point out to Embry that Erica had already had a few guys ask her out before but she'd said no because most of them were pricks. Adrian himself, had actually been presented with several losers who had the gall to ask if she was single.

He usually dealt with such losers by putting the fear of God in their puny minds and scaring them senseless with stories of an overprotective father with very large friends.

He was so going to hell.

"Dri, I'm nervous." Erica murmured as Embry went off to see why Claire and Penny were taking so long upstairs.

Adrian did a double take. This was the unconquerable Kick he was talking to. "Of what? Garrett?"

She bit her lip and nodded, quickly. "I just...I don't know, won't it be awkward?"

Adrian was tempted to tell her that if she wanted to pull out, Garrett would probably understand but he didn't. Because that would've been lying to a fourteen year old who just so happened to be his best friend.

He was such an idiot.

Adrian wrapped an arm around her shoulders, comfortingly. "It'll be fine Erica," he consoled, feeling like he was betraying his murderous thoughts by doing so. "Garrett's cool. And you'll be watching that new creepy movie like you wanted. Just pretend you're hanging out with friends, kay?"

"Like you?"

The question threw him off guard and invited the strangest images of dates with Erica to come seeping into his brain. But only for a second and then he was back, looking into worried green eyes. "Yeah, sure." He said, slowly.

There was a knock on the door and Adrian knew it was Garrett, probably waiting for Erica to jump in his older brother's car so he could drive them to Port Angeles. Erica beamed at him and hugged him tight before leaping to the door, shouting a very quick goodbye to her dad and Claire and Penny and closed the door just in time for Garrett to say: "Wow, you look really pretty Erica."

As he listened to the sounds of the car taking off down the street, Adrian could only think _he_ would've called her beautiful.


	5. Chapter 5

**Sweet Child Of Mine  
**_Twinkle-Fingers__  
__**Five**_

"_...I can't keep fighting this battle with you  
I can't hear words when you scream like you do  
If I cry, will you hold me just like we rehearsed?  
So do I, so do I say sorry first?..."  
__**- Stephanie MacIntosh**_

**Part One**

**Age 17**

Erica could feel her heart beating fast in her chest and her hands ran through his dark brown hair, revelling in the feeling of his lips on hers. She hadn't inherited her father's height but he wasn't too tall and they always fit without an absurd amount of bending needed.

The ridiculous heat went straight through her, making every part of her tingle as his hands danced down to her hips, slowly slipping under her shirt and the flesh-on-flesh contact made her shiver.

He pulled her down on to the bed, further on top of him and she slowly slipped her legs to either side of his hips, straddling him. He hissed and traced her bottom lip, begging for entrance she granted almost immediately.

Making out in her bedroom was less than ideal since any one of the Pack could drop in at any time but she hadn't been able to resist the dancing eyes of her boyfriend any longer and her eyes traced the mournful remains of her Calculus notes where they'd been tossed to the floor. _Sorry Mrs Kevlar..._she apologised silently to her maths teacher.

She couldn't focus much after that because her attention got diverted to the hands that were rapidly climbing up her back and slipping beneath the back strap of her bra. She pulled his hands back, pulling away to look at him.

"Zachary..." she whispered.

"What?" he asked, confused. Erica raised her eyebrows in a 'you-aren't-that-much-of-a-moron' way and he groaned, his bright blue eyes frustrated. "Come on Erica," he murmured, running his lips down her neck. "It's not that bad..."

His hands did a drop this time to rest on the belt loops her jeans. At that point, she was so tempted to just forget about it but she held strong and pushed him back against her bed head. "Zach. No."

Her boyfriend of two years groaned and shuffled upwards to face her properly. "Seriously?" he demanded. "Erica, come on, you trust me don't you?"

"Of course I do," she told him, her brow furrowing. "I just don't want to go there yet."

"Why not?"

"Because I just...I don't. And that should be enough." She rolled off him and straightened her shirt and fixed her hair, irritated. "I'm not the kind of girl that just goes there without thinking about it first." Erica said, firmly, wishing he could just keep to himself for _once._

Zachary Foster was a perfect guy- smart, funny, gorgeous, sexy. His first day Erica helped him find his way to his locker and he'd somehow coerced her into going out with him by the time the short trip ended. It'd been fantastic- Zach was nice to her Dad, to her friends, to her.

He remembered anniversaries of days Erica forgot (first date, first kiss, first meeting, first 'I love you'), he supported her at all her soccer games, he kissed her all the time (which was definitely a bonus) he barely even took his eyes off her even when he was surrounded by girls, which was always a problem. With his light brown hair, bright blue eyes and tan, he could've landed any girl he wanted but he wanted her and it always made her question just how perfect someone could be.

The only problem was that Zach liked to play games. Or more specifically, one game of How Far Can I Go Before My Girlfriend Tells Me Off?

Zach pulled something out of his pocket and set it on the nightstand, giving her that smile he knew she melted at. "It's not like I didn't come prepared..." he assured her, softly.

Erica froze, her eyes taking in the sight of the silver square condom packet on her nightstand.

"Are you _insane?_" she hissed, hastily throwing it in the bin. "What if my _Dad _saw that?"

"He wouldn't have to if we used it," Zach pointed out, standing up.

Erica tried not to show how flustered she was. "Zach, I told you-"

"Yeah, that you don't want to go there yet, I know. But Erica, I love you and you love me, so what's the problem?" he questioned, his voice seductive and low. "Let me show you? Please? Let me show you how much I love you..."

Erica bit her lip and slipped her arms around his neck, holding him close. How long had it been since she'd just hugged him like this? All they seemed to do anymore was just make out and then argue when he put his hands places they shouldn't have been.

Even now, Erica could feel his hands working their way under her bra again and his lips pressed lower and lower on her neck. She growled, shoving his hands off her. "Zachary, cut it out!"

"Why? _Why _should I?" he demanded, aggravated. "We get to this point and then what? I'm meant to just switch it off? I'm a _guy _Erica, it's only natural I'm a little frustrated."

"You're also my boyfriend," she snapped. "Which means it's only natural you should at least _try _not to make me so uncomfortable."

"Typical," Zach spat, grabbing his keys off the nightstand and shoving them in his pocket.

"What?"

"Typical Erica. Let me guess, _he _told you to put your foot down when this kind of thing happens instead of reasoning it out?" he sneered and although the anger wasn't entirely directed at her, it might as well have been.

The only other thing wrong with Zachary Foster was that he and Adrian Uley seemed to detest the very sight of each other. Usually, she would've taken this as a sign but Adrian was the only one who didn't like Zach so she figured it was just him becoming paranoid that they might start to drift apart because of the new arrival.

"So what if he did?" Erica found herself yelling, defensively. "Why does he _always_ come into this?"

"Because _he_'s the reason you're being so frigid about this whole thing!"

"_Frigid? _How does that link to Dri?" she asked, incredulously, to the point of laughing. It _was _laughable. Adrian was her best friend and she loved him to death but what did that have to do with Zach's wandering?

"Well we wouldn't want to upset little Adrian would we?" Zach snapped, mockingly. "You're too busy worrying about what he wants rather than what I need!"

"Oh so you _need _sex?" Erica echoed, bluntly. "Well since _we _haven't done it, it's a wonder you're not dead yet."

Zach muttered something under his breath and ran a hand over his eyes. "_He_'s not your boyfriend Erica," he said, bitingly. "_I _am. No matter how much you wish otherwise."

"_He's my best friend!_" Erica screeched, wishing she could pound it into his head. Her face flushed on its own accord. "_Why _are you _always _bringing this up?"

"Because I see the way he looks at you!"

"Like a sister?" she scoffed. "Oh yes Zach because incest is so _encouraged _these days."

"God you are so blind Erica," he seethed, glaring at her. "You know, if it had been you and him in our place, you wouldn't have hesitated _for a second._" He accused and it was like he'd slapped her.

"Get out and call me when you're not raving like a lunatic." She hissed, throwing her bedroom door open.

Zachary sent her an exasperated look before storming through the door and rampaging down and out of her house. He slammed the door shut for affect which made her wince and throw herself onto her bed. It wasn't a good idea because the heat from Zach's body was still seeped through her coverlet.

"Asshole." She muttered to herself, shutting her eyes.

"So you've finally seen the light huh? 'Bout time." Came a voice she knew almost as well as her own and an involuntary smile came to her lips before the scowl forced its way back.

"Shut up." She told Adrian as he landed on the bed beside her, making her bounce. He was getting to tall, she noted, with a touch of worry. All of them were, Jared and Kim's son Daniel, Paul and Rachel's son William, even little fourteen-year-old Graham, Seth and Molly's kid. It made them all worried.

"Enlighten me Kicker, what's wrong?" Adrian asked, softly as she stuck her head under a pillow.

"Just...relationship troubles." She said, frustrated.

Adrian stiffened and forced a chuckle. "What kind of troubles?"

"The usual ones."

"You mean he's still pushing you?" Adrian demanded, all pretences gone now as he ripped the pillow off her face. "Erica, he's not worth it. Just dump his sorry ass and move on." He growled.

Erica shrugged and sat up, cross legged beside him, suddenly very conscious of the heat emanating from Adrian. She eyed him, carefully. "It's not that simple."

"Why not?" he questioned, abruptly. "It's very simple. Just tell him 'You're a jerk' and then cancel the relationship."

"It's not a mail order eBay item Dri," Erica chuckled, rolling her eyes. "I love him."

"Erica, listen to me, _love_ is when the guy doesn't even think about pushing you until you give the okay and _love _is when you want to wait to make it mean something. _Lust _is totally different." He explained, firmly.

She knew she loved Zach but she couldn't keep herself from matching it up: Zach was _always _pushing although he didn't get anywhere...and could she honestly say she wanted to wait to make it mean something or was it more because she just wasn't sure about going down that road with Zach?

Erica giggled, although part of her was shaken up by it. "When did you turn into a love guru, Uley?" she teased. Adrian cracked a smile that made a vast amount of the female population swoon. Adrian had grown into one extraordinarily gorgeous guy, werewolf genes or no- smooth russet brown skin, drool-worthy muscles, dark soft hair, wide, unfathomably dark eyes and cheekbones angels would kill for.

"Since you were 15- who else is going to end up steering you away from that loser?" he questioned, rhetorically. Erica shook her head, tiredly.

"_Why _do you have to hate each other so much?" she asked, exasperated. "You're pretty alike in a lot of ways."

A growl slipped through Adrian's mouth. "_Don't _compare me with that douche."

"You're both smart, you've got the same ridiculous sense of humour, you both love to bait me, you're both irritating at times and incredible at others-"

"I'm _nothing _like him," Adrian seethed, his expression dark. "He's an asshole Erica. A grade A+ asshole and-" he paused suddenly, his brow furrowing.

His gaze narrowed on the bin and he took an experimental sniff that ended in a growl. As quietly as she dared, Erica got up off the bed and moved to the window, away from Adrian. He was starting to scare her. There was something off in his expression and the way he was suddenly striding toward the bin that had her tensed and worried and inexplicably reminded of a predator.

Adrian took another whiff near the bin and his hand knocked the lid off, carelessly, suddenly digging out the unopened condom packet Zachary had shown her. Another low growl tore through the room. "Erica...what is this?" Adrian hissed.

Erica watched him with wide eyes, praying that her father was home from work already. She wished she had the guts to look and see if his car was coming down the street from her window but she was far too worried for Adrian to take her eyes of him.

"Z-Zach bought it." she stumbled, taking in the excruciatingly stiff posture, rigidness, intensity in the eyes, breathing that sounded like a bull's might before it charged.

It was the wrong thing to say because Adrian's face screwed up and he looked about ready to tear someone's head off. _He can't phase here...oh god, don't let it be here. _Erica didn't want to end up caught in the crossfire of a newly phased werewolf's claws, if only because Adrian would never forgive himself if he hurt her and her Dad would be out for blood.

"Adrian?" No response. Erica bit her lip and stared into the deep, dark eyes she knew better than her own. "Dri?" she whispered. Adrian heaved a shuddering breath and seemed to snap out of the murderous rage he'd been spiralling into. "Dri, are-"

"I gotta go." He said suddenly, his hands trembling, not with anger but fear. His face had gone ashen. Erica forgot self-preservation and reached out to him but he recoiled like she was holding out a snake and didn't look at her as he raced out of the house.

Erica stood in the empty silence of her home, wondering just how she'd pissed off two of the most important guys in her life in the space of half an hour.

_Just talented I guess. _She told herself, bitterly.


End file.
